New Zealand Carrot Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Posted by whilehewasout on November 21, 2012 · 6 Comments 

It was birthday again for one of my colleagues at the office where I work and the birthday girl specifically asked for a carrot cake, so she got a carrot cake! I have made a test run at home before the Bday to make sure the cake will turn out good, for my Mr’s great pleasure – the recipe below is for a 20cm (8″) cake, I halved the amounts of the ingredients to make 2 small test cakes in my good-looking heart-shaped cake pans.

New Zealand Carrot Cake with Buttercream Frosting

adapted from BBCGoodFood

Ingredients:

250g plain wholemeal flour
180g brown sugar
3 eggs
175ml sunflower oil
55ml sour cream
Approx. 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice
2 level teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
300g grated carrots
75g desiccated coconut

For the topping
110g full fat soft cream cheese
50g unsalted butter
50g sifted icing sugar

Preparation:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 150°C/300°F. You will need one 20cm (8 inch) cake tin (lined with baking paper) and two mixing bowls.
2.In the first mixing bowl place the eggs, oil, sour cream. Next sieve the sugar into it  to avoid lumps.
3.Into the second bowl you sift the flour, gingerbread spice, cinnamon, soda, salt.
4.Beat the wet ingredients and the sugar together, then fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the carrots and coconut. Mix well to distribute everything evenly, then spoon into the cake tin and bake on the centre shelf for about 1 hour, until the top of the cake springs back when pushing it down with a finger.
5.When the cake is cool mix the topping ingredients together and spread thickly all over the top. As an option you can slice the cake in half and spread some of the ‘topping’ in between the two halves as well.

For an extra touch, my Mr sprinkled the cake with some coloured chocolate sprinkles:

Note: As I had to carry the cake to the office in the pan (so as not to ruin the frosting), I have placed a double line of aluminium foil into the pan before putting the cake in it, this way I was able to simply grab the two ends of the foil and lift out the cake. Illustration of the same, below 🙂

 

The “Test” Cakes!

No frosting on these, but it didn’t seem to bother any of us! YuMm

Filed under Food, Recipes · Tagged with brown sugar, buttercream frosting, chocolate sprinkles, desiccated coconut, easy carrot cake, how to carry a cake, New Zealand Carrot cake, shredded carrot